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Tip

Make-ahead tip

To assemble the pie in advance, cool the
beef filling before putting into the pie.
Both the filling and pastry can be made
up to 24 hrs in advance too, just keep
chilled in the fridge before assembling.

Method

Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3.
Using a flameproof casserole dish with
a lid, soften onion and celery in the butter.
Stir in the flour until it has disappeared,
then stir in the beef and Worcestershire
sauce. Crumble in stock cubes and add
thyme. Pour over ale, bring to a simmer,
then cover and cook in the oven for 2½ hrs.
Remove lid and cook for another 30 mins
– this should thicken the sauce nicely.

Increase oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.
For the pastry, whizz the flour, suet and
1 tsp salt in a food processor until there
are no suet lumps. Keeping the motor
running, dribble in 1 tbsp water at a time
until the pastry starts to come together,
then tip onto a lightly floured surface and
bring together with your hands.

Roll out half the pastry and use to line a
20-22cm pie dish. Using a slotted spoon,
spoon in all of the meat, then pour over
some of the sauce until the meat is just
coated. Put the rest of the sauce into a
saucepan. Roll out the remaining pastry
to cover the pie. Trim the edge with a
small, sharp knife, then crimp or fork the
edges to seal. Make a small heart from
cuttings. Brush top of the pie and heart
with beaten egg, then dip heart into
poppy seeds and stick to top. Bake for
30-40 mins until golden brown and crisp.
Reheat sauce and serve with the pie
along with some mash and greens.

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Comments, questions and tips

Comments

I can't work out what went wrong but this was horrible!! I often make steak pies and I agree that the filling was delicious. I haven't used suet pastry for a pie before, only for steamed puddings. It came out of the oven golden but with the fat from the suet sizzling on top. The pastry had all the delicacy of a deep fried doorstep and I could hardly cut through it. I see everyone else is full of praise, so it must have been me ;(

Made this for Sunday dinner yesterday. Added a few mushrooms at the onion/celery phase and used Newcastle Brown Ale. Took about 15 minutes longer in my oven for the pastry to brown. Served with honey roast roots and mustard mash. It was delicious! The gravy is really good!! Will definitely cook this again. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

Made this for Sunday dinner and it was delicious. Used lean stewing steak and old peculiar, like some of the others. I also cooked the meat for longer too, to make it nice and tender. Will definitely make this again. Yum.

This pie is amazing! I currently live in Kenya and have wanted to have a go at it for ages; I got hold of some excellent beef and ale is difficult to find so used a bottle of local larger (Tusker) which worked a treat. Made it for dinner guests who all loved it. Didn't make the heart for the top, but wrote 'xmas' with left over pastry instead; a perfect warm up to the festive season!

Love this recipe, ahev made it many times now and it always goes down well. Only change I made is to slow cook the filling over night before serving for lunch the following day. Makes the filling even more delicious! I make it with Theakstons Old Peculiar.

I have made this countless times and my husband and any other lucky guests absolutely love it!! The one I do though- to balance out the bitterness of the beer is to add some sugar. It makes it a lot more palatable if you find it too strong. Cranberry sauce would also be a great addition if you wanted to balance it out!

This was superb! I used Marston pedigree pale ale, (on offer at corner shop), I thought that this complimented the beef perfectly, not bitter. Also a bottle to drink with the meal!
I cheated and used ready made light puff pastry.
Will make again soon, need to review my choice in stock cubes though as 2 gave a nice beefy taste but too much salt for my palate, low salt stock cubes next time.
Great success with mash, beans & carrots. Strawberry cheesecake for pud!

I found this a bit too overpowering with the ale- I used Hobgoblin. I added about 100ml extra of hot water and some chicken stock to lighten it which worked. I didn't bother with the pastry but just whacked on some puff pastry instead. Was a roaring success all round.

This was my first time making a steak pie and I chose this recipe over the others listed on my search, because of its relative simplicity. I made it yesterday and it was absolutely delicious - rich and flavourful, and amazingly straightforward even though of course you do have to allow several hours of overall cooking/prep time. I used a middling-brown ale, not bitter but with a robust aroma, and I toyed with the idea of using a sheet of frozen puff pastry that I had on hand, but in the end decided to have a go at suet pastry, using some shredded suet that I'd got in to make a clootie dumpling ( but hadn't done:)
The pastry was tender and golden, the filling glossy and melt-in-the-mouth, and my husband really enjoyed the extra sauce which he could help himself to...truly this pie was a hit with us all. I loved the heart detail, too, it made it a bit special and I was so proud when I presented it to the family! This recipe will now be among my favourites.

This was so easy to follow and it was fantastic! The slow simmer brought out they best in the meat and it was so tender it just melted in your mouth. My husband who is a Brit thought it was "Lovely" which is a compliment in itself! Thank you!! :)

Roy, we cooked this for a dinner party, and made a smaller gluten free version for a wheat intolerant friend. We managed to find gluten free beer (made by Green's, I think) in Sainsbury's. Instead of the Worcestershire sauce, we used red wine vinegar and celery salt, and it still tasted delicious!

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